VIDEO: Top 200 global construction companies

China State Construction & Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has topped International Construction's (iC's) ranking of the world’s 200 largest construction companies for the third year running. It landed the honour with revenues last year of CNY 662 billion (US$ 108 billion), making it the first contractor in the industry’s history to break the US$ 100 billion per year sales mark.

As in the 2013 edition of the ranking, there were four other Chinese contractors in the top ten. These included the country’s two major rail construction groups, China Railway Construction in second place and China Railway Group in third. The highest-placed non-Chinese company was Vinci in fourth place.

There were a total of 11 Chinese contractors in the Top 200, and they claimed the greatest slice of the group’s US$ 1,625 billion revenues, with a 27.2% share. This was an increase on their 23.7% share last year.

The largest national group in the Top 200 in terms of the number of companies was the US, with 36 in the Top 200. They had aggregate revenues of US$ 213 billion, second to the Chinese total of US$ 442 billion.

US companies also made the most improvements in their standings compared to last year, with 17 of the 36 companies listed improving their positions last year and seven new entries. Many of these were house building specialists benefiting from a market recovery. However, the most notable was Chicago Bridge & Iron’s 33-place gain to no. 35, thanks to its acquisition of Shaw Group.

There were also significant gains and new entries from UK construction companies in this year’s Top 200. In contrast, there were falls for several Brazilian, Indian, Japanese and Spanish construction companies.

Employment in the industry was up +2.9%, with the average Top 200 company employing 24,583 people. This implies total employment by the group of 4.91 million people.

Industry profitability also improved on last year’s ranking, with an average operating margin of 4.65%, compared to 4.30% in the 2013 edition.

The Top 200 league table is published in the July-August edition of International Construction. A report containing five years of Top 200 reports, from 2010 to 2014 is also available to buy in the Information Store.